The Time of The Cat 36

Jefferson

The battle-scarred warrior, for that was how he viewed himself, moved silently into a small pocket in the rocks. It was dark, but his eyes were very sensitive and he was able to make out most of the details of his environment. He was still angry. The big moaning thing had intended to kill his people.

He’d been independent most of his life and had resisted getting too close to any humans, but something about the big man was attractive to him. The very first time he saw them in the subway tunnel, the tone of the big man’s voice made him feel that he’d met another warrior. He immediately wanted to be part of their pride.

They’d fed him, carried him with them and he’d rubbed the scent glands in his cheeks on them until they were his exclusively. They even knew what to call him. He readily accepted the name ‘Jefferson’ as his, realizing that it was their word for ‘stealthy-battle-scarred-warrior’. As far as he was concerned, the two of them belonged to him and he was ready to fight to protect them.

Right now, he could hear some quiet, clicking sounds in the rocks over to the right. The noise didn’t puzzle him. It was one of the spiders. He had survived enough encounters with them in the subway and later to know their ways and he realized that it was stalking the two humans as they made their way into the other, smaller room.

He was well aware that the two wanted him to come, but he knew that, if he did, he’d lose the opportunity to surprise the stalking spider. They called him for a long time and moved around looking for him, but fortunately, they didn’t come close enough to the spider to give it the chance to ambush either of them.

The spiders would rush if there were a large group of them and they would attack directly if they were cornered or desperate, but they were reluctant to attack boldly if the odds were against them. He didn’t think about it in exactly that way, of course. His mental processes were more elementary than that. He simply categorized the spiders as cowards.

He heard Dec and Liz stop and crush the eggs in the smaller room and, although he didn’t know what they were killing, he recognized the sound of violence and was satisfied when he heard the crunch of one of the spider’s hard parts. He knew he could depend on them to fight and fight well.

The stealthy spider was moving closer to the entrance to the nest room and he needed to do something about that situation. He silently moved out of the pocket and around the formation that concealed him. Padding swiftly with a sensation of anger rising in anticipation of the coming attack, he moved closer to the spider.

It didn’t sense him. He knew the things were good at seeing motion, but they seemed to be unable to hear well and were totally unable to smell. He kept out of its sight until he was able to slip around in front of it by running up a slanted rock.

The rock overhung the path to the entrance of the next room. The spider thing was approaching more rapidly, now that the humans were out of sight. The Warrior crouched lower as his intended prey approached.

His attention was momentarily distracted as his keen ears made out the sound of a second hiding spider. It was in the room in front of him and was currently cowering from the humans as they destroyed the eggs.

He realized that his attack would have to be silent, so he could stalk the second spider without it knowing he was there. He refocused on the approaching creature and, as it reached the optimum spot, he silently elevated into the air, propelled by his strong, hind legs. Turning in the air as he descended, he landed exactly on the spider’s back, the only spot that it couldn’t easily reach with its venomous fangs.

The spider made a dismayed clicking and hissing sound at being flattened to the stone floor, but the sound was not loud. Most of the air had been knocked out of it by the impact.

The Warrior clung madly to the ridged edges of the spider’s slippery carapace. The edges around its back were the only solid purchase point for the cat’s claws. The creature was gnashing its jaws, but was unable to bite its attacker.

With perfectly timed slashes, the Warrior clawed out both of the spider’s eye sockets. This had worked well in the past and it had the expected effect. Just like Declan had found with the Pugs, the optic processes were directly attached to the brain in some highly sensitive fashion. The Pugs would die if too strong a light was shined into their eyes and the spiders were similarly sensitive.

The destruction of its eye sockets sent the creature into a shuddering form of paralysis and the Warrior then lurched to one side, rolling off its back and simultaneously turning it over to expose its underside.

There was a surface nerve plexus there that the cat carefully bit, spitting out the bad taste immediately after the bite. Severing the plexus caused the spider to flex all of its legs in repeated spasms that gradually slowed. It was still alive, as evidenced by the repeated opening and closing of its jaws, but it was now unable to right itself and walk. The Warrior knew that it would soon cease all movement and die.

Congratulating himself on another successful battle, he sidled into the next room just as his humans disappeared behind a curtain of rock and descended out of the room. The odor of the crushed eggs was overwhelming and the rank odor momentarily distracted him.

The second one must have somehow sensed the death of the first spider. It came at him in the gloom as he sneezed to clear his nose of the broken egg odor. He responded by leaping straight into the air over its back to avoid the rush.

The spider halted as the cat came down on the rocks to its right side. It swiftly turned and approached more slowly, its jaws clashing.

The Warrior knew that he must avoid the business end of the thing at all costs. He bounded into the air again, bounced off a convenient rock, and leaped over a fallen stalactite disappearing from view.

Once out of sight, he ran swiftly around to the rear of the puzzled spider and simply charged out from behind a formation, leaping onto its back before it could turn. From that point, the fight went as before. The Warrior had learned the technique well and the second spider was reduced to a quivering, soon-to-be-corpse in short order.

If he’d been able to speak and someone had asked him, he would have characterized the spider as much easier to defeat than another Tom, especially if the affections of a lady cat were at issue. The stinky things weren’t much fun to bite, but he knew he had to do a workman-like job to dispatch them and so that’s what he did. He didn’t waste time quibbling about it either. His basic philosophy was: See something that needs fighting, start fighting right now, and do whatever it takes to win.

The cat didn’t wait around for it to die. He trotted past the destroyed eggs, sneezing again in disgust. Once at the side of the room, he was easily able to see the glow coming up from the lights below. He found the rope ladder and could smell the scent of his humans on it.

Being mostly a city cat, he had climbed buildings and fences but had not previously encountered anything like the ladder. However, he was nothing if not adaptable, so he dug his claws in and backed down one of the supporting ropes. It was a long climb for him, but he accomplished it in good order.

Once down, he started to look for his pride members. That was a bit of a problem because they were out of sight and, in fact, already going into one of the elevators. As he was standing by the path, a group of tourists came along and two little girls, lagging somewhat behind the main group spied him.

He was always ready to respond to children. These girls smelled and sounded as if they were simpatico, so he allowed them to make over him and he didn’t struggle when one of them picked him up. This got him a nice ride as they hurried to catch up with the group.

Once the girls reached the group, their parents admonished them to keep up and then exclaimed over the cat.

“It was as if they’d never seen a Warrior,” he thought.

The discussion attracted the attention of the guide who walked back and was quite upset about finding a cat taking his tour. He grabbed at the Warrior who let him know with both claws and teeth that his attentions were not appreciated.

The guide’s attempt to grab the cat raised an immediate outcry from both of the girls, “Leave our kitty alone!” Their objection was merged with rather vile cursing as the guide’s second attempt to grab was met with a serious bite on the thumb.

The girls couldn’t hold Jefferson while he was attempting to fight. He easily slipped to the floor and then dashed off down the path at a high rate of speed, while the parents of the two girls tried to assist the guide in stopping the bleeding.

He came to a large room that smelled of food. There he saw some people eating and some others coming out of an elevator. The elevator seemed somewhat familiar. Although it obviously wasn’t one of the transporters, he sensed that it would take him to a different location. Waiting his chance, he slipped into the box as the doors closed on a load of tourists exiting the cave.

He was so close to the floor and quiet that no one noticed him as he silently wove through their legs and stopped at the sidewall in a pocket clear of feet. He sat down, curling his tail tightly around him on the wall side to prevent it from

being inadvertently stepped on. The elevator moved up slowly, eventually reaching the surface and he exited casually along with the rest of the tourists.

He walked towards the exit of the building and outside. The light momentarily dazzled him, but as his eyes adapted, he saw both of his people going into what turned out to be a bathroom.

With a glad “Meowp,” he dashed over and nearly tripped both of them as he rubbed on their legs in an ecstasy of greeting. It was obvious that the happiness was mutual, much to his satisfaction.